Jason Kidd OUT! Who will be the Mavs' next HC?

[mvossman]

Idk, man. I think that sells the uphill battle short. 

Truly great coaches can decide to go anywhere. If you were Eric Spoelstra, would you even consider moving to Toronto when you factually know you'd get offers from at least five other cities? If you were Nick Nurse NOW, would you even consider going back? I wouldn't, but maybe you would. I'm sure there's a "case by case" element to it, but I'd bet it's tougher than you think to get someone excited to go. Much less so when the opportunity you're offering is the applicant's first chance to coach in the league. 

And, agreed on free agency, but I think it factors into the draft, even. We see guys at the top of the draft class attempt to maneuver their way to certain places each year. I bet that kind of thing goes on much more than we know, and there's also the angles of "who can I get to stay after his rookie contract" or "who's going to be so miserable here they won't even work hard" to consider. 

Seriously, I'm not trying to overthink, but I believe there are NBA franchises/cities where building is easier than others, for a variety of reasons. TOR is one of the more difficult jobs in the league, I believe.

All I'm saying is this: Ujiri's success in Toronto proves that he's qualified, and in some ways it might even be more impressive than we realize, but this opportunity in Dallas is next level for him, even with the fan emotional baggage and lack of draft capital. It's a clean cap sheet with some decent players on reasonable contracts, with the main piece already identified. AND, last but certainly not least, this is a place where people want to live and play. Maybe not like LA or Miami, but it's on the short list of "easy" franchises to build, imo. We MIGHT see an entirely new chapter of Ujiri's playbook.

Its a good argument than Dallas would be more of a destination than Toronto for head coaches, so his pool of options might be bigger now than what it was.  Its possible that his pool of draft options was somewhat limited, but he definitely seemed to have a player type when he drafted, and I don't think that was impacted by those limitations.  Of course now we have Schmitz to muddy those waters.  I try to look at what Masai has done and what Schmitz has said to get an impression of what they are looking for.  I do realize I'm mostly pulling it out of my ass, but its fun to speculate.

[F Gump]

Well we will see if this has any legs or just fan fiction.  Sarunas team just won their championship today.  Were they waiting for him?

https://x.com/bsphere_/status/2068045478483124376?s=46

I'm probably the only fan fiction. I haven't seen anyone else mention him.

So if I had to bet, I would bet yes. He's my guy. That's based on Sarunas stellar coaching in Europe. He wins big. 

But there's a big obstacle - he just signed an extension in January. I would be betting that Dumont money can make that a non-issue.

[Chicagojk]

I'm missing the "fan fiction" part. Has he been linked to the Mavs somewhere else?

I have brought his name up a few times.  The fan fiction is a little joke.  There is some in Mavs fandom just trying to put things together.  Sarunas was a quiet interview with Masai 7 years ago before he hired Nurse.  I have read that either Sarunas turned him down or Masai went another direction.   Sarunas playing the USA in college and had a cup of tea in nba so the thinking is he may be ready for a new challenge.

[Mavs2021]

It makes a lot more sense to wait until after the draft and maybe even free agency before you hire a new coach. The head coach should have ZERO say in the overall franchise direction, the chosen playing style, the drafted or signed players. Why rush to sign coach X, who is just another distraction in the draft room, understandably pushing his own agenda based on who and what he prefers. You do what YOU as the President of Basketball Operations (plus the GM) think is best for the franchise and whatever the outcome is, you then go find a suitable coach. The coach will know exactly what his roster will look, the direction the team is headed and what the franchise priorities are. It´s much fairer to the new head coach and much easier to navigate for Ujiri/Schmitz. Even worse in basketball that it is so single player dependent that you have to adapt your playing style and coaching philosophy according to your star player not the other way around.

I actually respect them more for not rushing to sign a new head coach before the draft and get distracted in the process, when the whole 100% focus should be on the draft and free agency.

[mvossman]

You could be right.  I certainly don't claim to know what he is going to do.  But we do have 15 years of sample with him being the man, and he has been out of the game less than a year.  That's enough to lean my guesses in a given direction.  I have made comments about players being a Masai kind of guy, but that area is a little murkier with Schmitz being the GM.  Just for grins, I will make two predictions based on Masai history and we will see if they hold up:

Masai hires an assistant coach (not a huge reach as a lot of rumors point in this direction)

The Mavs do not move from #9 in the draft

Whelp, I'm 0 for 1.  Mavs probably trade down and make me a total idiot.

[KillerLeft]

Whelp, I'm 0 for 1.  Mavs probably trade down and make me a total idiot.

Lots of smoke out there about them trading down all of a sudden, too (but I hope you're right about that one).